‘Swallow’ Promises to Be ‘a Little Dirtier’ Than Other Food Magazines

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Edible Manhattan isn’t the only new food magazine in town. Swallow, which launches next month, promises to be “an experiment in how far a food magazine can go.” The introduction to the hardbound premiere issue continues, “Swallow is a step away from the hubbub of ‘foodie’ faddism.” Hence a look into “the dark side of Scandinavia’s fungi,” a blechtacularly illustrated collection of head-to-tail pork recipes (braised pig’s hearts with dandelion salad, anyone?), and profiles of top Scandinavian chefs, including our own Marcus Samuelsson. But what we really love is the front-of-book section introducing us to various Scandinavian foods and trends. Below, some Nordic words we’ve pulled from the issue’s features and happily added to our porkcabulary.

Falukorv (Sweden) – A gigantic smoked pork-and-veal sausage that made an appearance in the Swedish porn flick Fäbodjäntan.

Smørrebrød (Denmark) – “[D]erived from the Danish words for butter and bread, [it’s] infinitely represented in Davidsen’s eponymous restaurant, with a meter-and-a-half long menu listing over 250 varieties of open-faced sandwiches.”

Kalaaliaraq (Greenland) – The local hunter’s market. “Displays all manner of edibles from the relatively tame to the far-out freakouts” such as sea birds, polar bear meat, and eviscerated seals whose meat is eaten raw.

Kräftskiva (Sweden) – Crayfish, beheaded and cracked open, and eaten with a lot of aquavit during summer parties that involve paper hats.

Husmanskost (Sweden) – Home-cooked food, such as boiled knuckle of pork with mashed swede served with three types of mustard.

Salmiakki (Finland) – A corrosive salt that’s “present in all manner of salted licorice from Iceland to Denmark, through Finland.” Can be dissolved into cheap vodka for a drink (“salmari”) that tastes like a mixture of chemical salt, refined sugar, and molten licorice.